Chemnitz cites the views of the German Roman Catholic Johann Gropper (1503-59). According to Chemnitz, he ?argues at great length that Christ by his obedience did not merit only the remission of sins but also the Spirit of renewal; and that God remits sins to no one without at the same time renewing the spirit of his mind . . . . He also contends that faith in Christ lays hold not only on the benefit of reconciliation but also... Read more
John 6:56: ?He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him?E This morning we have examined the Bible?s teaching on the mutual indwelling of the Persons of the Trinity. The Persons are distinct from each other, and not reducible to each other; the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. Yet, they are so intimately united, and participate so full in... Read more
God created our bodies; He will redeem our bodies and raise them from the dead; and in between He calls us to ?present the members of our bodies as instruments of righteousness?Eand to ?offer your bodies as living sacrifices.?EOur bodies are gifts from God, and we should offer them for His glory. Our bodily postures in worship are important. Worship is in part training in the proper approach to God. Worship not only teaches how to ?present the members of... Read more
INTRODUCTION We?ve been looking at Christian worship in the light of Scriptural patterns of sacrifice. This gives us an overall order or sequence of worship. In this session, I want to examine two main issues: First, the Trinitarian basis of worship, and second, the dialogic structure of worship. These are connected in my mind, though I?m not sure that I can communicate exactly how. ACCESS TO THE FATHER IN SON AND SPIRIT Scripture makes it clear that our approach (?drawing... Read more
Thinking about perichoresis or about Gregory Nazianzen’s famous “No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendour of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one” always makes me think of Escher. I find now that I am not the only one. Citing a study by James Loder and Jim Neidhardt, Robert Letham points out how the doctrine of the Trinity points to the limits of... Read more
John 17 may provide some basis for developing the holiness of God along perichoretic lines. Jesus prays in vese 17-19 that the disciples would be sanctified. Jesus sanctifies Himself, so that the disciples too might be sanctified. The means by which the disciples are sanctified is through the “truth,” which Jesus equates with “Your word.” Sanctification is also connected to mission. The disciples sanctified by the word/truth of God are sent into the world as was the Holy Son sent... Read more
Mark Heim has a fine piece on salvation as communion in the October 2004 issue of Theology Today . He begins by distinguishing various sorts of relations that human beings have with one another. It is possible for two persons to have an impersonal relationship (a man falls off a roof and hits someone on the ground); it is also possible to encounter another person as an agent, and this is a personal encounter, whether face to face or in... Read more
Roger D Lund has an intriguing article on wit in seventeenth century English literature in the January 2004 issue of the Journal of the History of Ideas . Lund quotes Hobbes, whose statement sets up the opposition that continued through the following century: “Those that observe . . . similitudes, in case they be such as are but rarely observed by others, are sayd to have a Good Wit; by which, in this occasion, is meant a Good Fancy. But... Read more
Neuhaus provides an illuminating summary of Stephen Ozment’s history of Germany in the November issue of FT . This in particular: “‘The original motives for the war were completely self-centered, not Judeocentric or anti-Semitic. Germans wanted to avenge and repair, by total victory, the draconian reparations they had been compelled to pay and the terrible suffering they had endured since World War I.’ As for Hitler’s personal motivations, his chief target was Christianity, through which, in his view, the Jewish... Read more
The November 2004 issue of First Things had a couple of pieces on Czeslaw Milocz, both emphasizing the religious, Christian ground of his poetry. I was particularly struck by this quotation from an article by Jeremy Driscoll: “To put it very simply and bluntly, I must as if I believe that the four Gospels tell the truth. My answer to this is: Yes. So I believe in an absurdity, that Jesus rose from the dead? Just answer without any of... Read more
Leithart
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